A YOUNG mum has relived the horrific moment when a factory conveyor belt ripped the hair off her head.

Kelly Nield, 25, said: “I thought I was going to die. I was coughing up blood and just thinking, ‘Oh my God, oh my God.’

“It all happened so fast. I couldn’t breathe.”

Kelly was working at a coat hanger factory when a bunch of hangers got tangled on the belt and she leaned over to free them.

As she did so, her scarf got caught in the machinery and tightened around her throat.

Her ponytail also became entangled and her finger was nearly torn off when she grabbed a chain as she struggled to free herself.

Kelly’s long hair was left tangled in the machinery after the accident (Image: Cavendish Press)

Kelly fought back tears as she recalled: “I started banging on the belt and shouting for help.

“I could see my finger dangling there and I couldn’t breathe but the factory was noisy and nobody had seen it happen.

“My friend ran to press the main ‘off’ button but it felt like it all happened in slow motion.

“A workman found scissors to cut the scarf but my throat began to swell and I couldn’t speak.”

Kelly, of Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, earned around £7 an hour as an agency worker at the Mainetti UK hanger plant in Deeside, north Wales. She was in and out of hospital for surgery for months and still cannot eat properly because of her injuries.

Mainetti, who also have a plant in Jedburgh, Roxburghshire, were fined £60,000 with £21,600 costs on Thursday after admitting health and safety breaches over the 2009 accident. They apologised to mum-of-one Kelly, who is eight months pregnant.

She said there was no dress code or formal safety training for workers on the conveyor belt.